Mirei

Composing the meal from the counter

At the counter, Yuzo Nakao keeps the order of dinner unset until the guest begins to choose. As chef and owner of Mirei in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, he has held that discipline since 2016, running the kitchen and the house around an à la carte form that is still uncommon at this level of Kyoto cooking. The usual kaiseki procession gives way here to selection: sashimi, grilled fish, tempura, simmered dishes, rice, sweets, sake beside them, each called when appetite and the evening ask for it.

Nakao’s public story is mostly the story of this room. That is not a casual structure. It asks the chef to keep many paths ready at once, to know when a small portion is enough, and when a guest will want another dish from the bench before the meal turns toward rice.

Around 50 dishes, chosen one by one

The working menu runs to around 50 daily dishes, a number that matters because each one has to be ready for a different place in the meal. A guest may move from assorted sashimi into amberjack shabu-shabu, from grilled white sea bream with crisp skin into simmered conger eel, then toward karasumi mochi or matsutake and sea bream rice. In autumn, Tamba matsutake can set the tone. In winter, Matsuba crab and fugu bring the counter into colder weather.

Nakao’s sourcing is named through the ingredients rather than through spectacle: 2kg white tilefish from Yawatahama and Wakayama, bamboo shoots, hairy crab, hamo sukiyaki, chestnut tempura, blowfish milt with ginger soy. The technique shifts with the product. He grills for skin and scent, simmers for depth, fries for a clean edge, and uses shabu-shabu when the point is the briefest contact with heat. The beverage program follows that looseness, with sake as the center of gravity and natural wines appearing where the food can carry them.

The room around the open kitchen

The room keeps close to the work. Counter seats face the open kitchen, so the meal forms bench-side, not from a distant pass. The atmosphere is quiet enough for the small decisions to remain audible: another piece of fish, a little more sake, rice now or later. Simple Japanese lines and a house-like warmth soften the polish, and the restaurant’s own description draws on the plainness of Millet’s paintings, a way of saying that nature is present without being staged.

Because the format is à la carte, pacing belongs to the exchange between guest and kitchen. Mirei can feel like a high-end izakaya in its freedom, yet the hand remains Kyoto kaiseki: seasonal, portioned, and alert to sequence. This address holds Michelin 1-star recognition, and the counter’s range runs from bamboo shoots to suppon ramen, from grilled matsutake to karasumi mochi.